Lots of action

It has been great weather for the last week or so and plenty of trips outside:

Sat 14th - Brimham

An early start for Owen, Ben and myself (team strong)... led to us arriving a lot earlier than team chong (Si, Paul, Hitman) who were still relaxing in Mersyside as we were entering the ghetto of Harrogate.

Upon arrival I was most impressed with the warmup problems of Pommel, Black Dog arete..etc and swiftly ticked a nice contrived line from sitting in a pit and shortly after added the classic lie down start.. what a stellar line trying to avoid the wedged block and holds out right! :P Jokes aside it climbed very well and we moved on to the grim anchor problem. Owen pointed out the grip sequence and I dispatched without losing too much skin on the top!

An epic trek across the moors landed us under Crimpy Roof and I was obviously instantly psyched for some overhanging crimp action. The Crimpy Roof 7b/+ looked ripe for the flash treatment but upon latching the edge of the jug on top my right hand greased violently off the crimp and it was bloodshed. A lot of wiping and taping, ensured I was able to get it done 2nd go and we turned attention to Dave Cowls 'To me to You' which looked fantastic. Owen figured out most of the moves including a nice burly campus compression to campus slap finish!
I Figured out my non-6ft 5inch frame beta and put it in the memory banks for a further visit as today was aimed at volume (I have enough projects on the Lime!).

A steady stream of venues were visited such as the Jokers Wall and No Red Tape with the amazing rockover problem being the highlight. As we got drained, a quick visit to Titfield Thundferbolt was in order, I had neither the skin nor the energy but hoped to glimpse some beta off a local. Someone was stood under it but refused to pull on for all the 10 minutes we were there...strange but at least Ben quickly got Whisky Galore using some camp rockover-thumb press-standing on your feet-style climbing ;)

After a quick brew at the tourist cafe, we popped over to the Niche and found the Hitman in his hustling routine making the desperate appear trivial. Me and O obviously went straight for the dyno as it looked immense and doable. Owen got a lot closer to holding the swing than myself and I think with fresh arms and skin we will get it done in short time, really cool jump to an aesthetic pinchy shelf! I went over to try Fantasy League as a warm down and after getting up on both aretes with a right heel on, I hit the energy wall and slid down on to the mats into a heap and gave up the game. Hitman got a bit closer but popped off as he slapped high up into the scrittly sandy arete. It's a nice problem but could probably do with being a bit less chossy.

Sunday 15th - Ogwen hit

I went out with a strong team of Yoofs from Merseyside as well as Fatneck who was making it 2 days out climbing in a row for the first time in ageeeees. We started off at the Caseg Fraith and I got stuck into the retro flash of the crag only to fail miserably on Boneyard and Skunk X. I felt likle shit from Saturday still and had horrificly poor skin, so decided to hike up to Animal Magnetism and see if it was worth the while. After a hideous treck, we arrived at the roof and were psyched with what we saw. Me and Dan started working out what to do whilst the others got on the stuff round the back (a very nice couple of problems). I managed to climb the problem from the pinch and first RH hold to the finish first try but when I rested and tried it from the pull-on I was dismayed by my total inability to move to the pinch without collapsing in a heap. It felt like my body positioning and strength were totally pathetic. Wondered whether the first LH hold had maybe gotten smaller and left it.

We had a tea break then headed over to the Milestone area where with 8 pads and 3 spotters I managed to shake my way up Monkey See arete, what a fucking amazing line with a high crux! Just Saturn left to do now for the trio of highballs (which incidently looks way harder than just 1 grade above the others?). We moved over to Marilyn Monroe area and after failing on the campus method on Einstein, I remembered hearing of a feet first ascent. A couple of goes and it was done! What a brilliant and unique style of problem. I would recommend it to anyone long of leg and strong of toe :)

The Pit boulder saw the others having a play and little Mike going into crush mode to get the Pit Start and his 2nd v5 of the day and outdoors... strong!

Tuesday 17th - Cave Time

On the way to the cave I was moaning to O and Pete about how shit I felt and that I might try and lay the nemesis of Left Wall Low to rest and maybe try the sitter to the Beavers.

After a pit stop and a lot of caffeine and chocolate i was firing on all cylinders and did my new regime of a bit of running and theraband before pulling on some big grips. The arms felt in good condition although the skin was still sore from the weekend. I pulled on to Trigger Cut and cruised through to the slap to the rail and almost held it. Good shit. Next try I held the rail for the first time ever and managed to get through to the very last move only to kick my feet against the wall in several places and run too low on energy to grab the last jug. devestation!

I had a banana, some water and had a word with myself, got back up there and then overslapped jabbing my fingers into the rock above the jug to fail again. I was beginning to well and truly punter it up from a winning position.... determined not to make it another Rockatrocity type siege, I unleashed the fury and was more solid than ever on the next try, gaining the 2nd to last hold for the 3rd time in a row. I was about to try and get a right heel on ( what the fuck!) when I heard Owen shouting for me to campus... the words slowly filtered through and I took my feet out, swung my hips left and back right again to stick the hardest jug to jug 1ft campus move I have ever done screaming to hold on. YYFY!

I staggered about for a while waiting for the adrenaline to fade away and enjoyed a small feast on my mat whilst watching smooth Pete crush Left Wall to make it a 2 out of 3 Team Merseyside projecting success. We only had Owen left to get Left Wall High done for the high fives, but he somehow managed to fall off the very last move as we willed him to just dyno 2 handed to the jug ledge at the end. He will get it done next time for sure and I am now psyched at the prospect of yet another new project... Halfway House appeals as well as Beaver Cleaver Direct (which I had a short play on late into the darkness) and Crucial Times as an ambitious one.

The lamplight session ended with my now traditional failure on Left Wall Low to the amusement of all present. I'll get it some day...maybe

Portland trip and a return to the Orme

I've had a great last couple of weeks that began the weekend before last with me sitting at home with my hand in a bucket of ice on Thursday speaking to O about being unsure as to whether to go with him and Mike to Portland! After a brief chat I decided to go along for the craic and to maybe take some photos.

Friday 20th
The weather in Portland was fantastic when we drove down to the isle and after dropping the gear at the plush bunkhouse (a former masonic lodge that had power showers en suite in every room!) we headed the New Cuttings and Mike obviously dispatched Guy Fawkes in horrendous conditions. I was getting the full shutdown with the tweaky wrist injury trying to warm up on hard v5/6's but seemed to get on ok with Stomping with Bez direct start, apart from greasing all over the crimps when spanning out right to the rib. Mike was doing ok but fighting conditions on the woeful line of LH crimps on My Chemical Romance and decided to leave it till the next day. We realised after we packed up and crawled up the small hill/terrace that we couldn't see more than 30ft as we had been climbing in a heavy mist..nice

Saturday 21st
The next day dawned sunny and hot, tops off weather on the boulderfield was the action and what a pleasant surprise. I didn't even know there was a boulderfield when I agreed to go down (assuming it was just vertical wall climbing) and was relieved to get on some compression and non tweaky slopers! The problems are of the highest quality with many hidden gems dotted around. We were impressed by Lightning Strike and Liquid Sunshine in particular. There was so much to get on, everyone managed to tick over 20 problems and felt destroyed by the end. Mike obviously still had some gas left in the tank as he went up to the Crag and got MCR crushed in a few attempts! Machine.

Sunday 22nd
Sunday was a more slow paced day with a return to the boulderfield and an aching team finding the warmup hard going. I was chuffed to get the flash on Hope Slide, what a fantastic couple of moves and definitely worth the near bushwack to the Jungle boulder. After that we hit the Cavity Search Roof and after some vision on the shared start I quickly got the 3 main lines and we went over to tick the tank block. After that it was straight to find a hidden gem in Collo Della Terra, i offereed to go first instead of sharking the beta and did a dynamic right hand finish on the flash which was ok but maybe not the problem! After realising I had just dfone the V6 RH line, I got back on it and got the flash on the main event snatching out left to a series of rough but positive crimps and a lovely bit of Right heel action allows access to the big slopey jug up and right on the arete. What a problem to finish on :)
We finished the weekend with an amazing Cream Tea and a long drive back up North. I'll definitely be going back to get on the meatier problems when not hampered with injury.

Return to the Awful
On returning I felt pretty broken so had 3 days off and then a short session on Thursday to see how the hand was (pretty bad still!). By Friday night I was about to sack the Orme with Matt but decided to go and maybe try left wall traverse as I could probably handle that and have never got round to really trying it.

Saturday 28th
When we got there, the amazingly sticky feeling of the cave told me it would be too good an opportunity to waste and we ran up to Clutch and back, then up the hill above the cave and back down. A thorough theraband routine and warmup ensued for at least 20 minutes and I felt amazing.

Decided to have a warmup go on Lou Ferrino in the warmup shoes and without brushing anything and I suddenly found myself with my Left hand in the last pocket and right hand going over to the finish slot only to shake off sapped of energy and with a bit of a flash pump! Shit, should I have tried harder? Had I wasted the chance of the day! A couple more goes didn't go down so well as we tried to get a little video..etc but I can't seem to climb anything when I know it's being filmed so asked for nothing to be videod. Sam Hamer arrived and had a really good go using some west sequence that looked so unefficient and powerful that it got me psyched to try a bit harder and I flowed through the next try feeling about 125% stronger! The press out to the pocket just happened, my feet cut loose but got put straight back on and I sketched my way to the match and let out a little shout of sheer relief and joy.

It's been great to get Lou done without resorting to any real training other than getting out climbing a lot and resting loads! It shows that I can get up things when things conspire to go right like avoiding getting injured and the weather being ok. I can't wait to get back and start playing on Trigger Cut and get the main 3 things I wanted to do done in there :)

Roll on March!